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Four Flyers observations: Team effort leads to Flyers first win since November 9th

After 25 days, the Flyers finally are victorious. Coming off a 10th straight loss Saturday, the Flyers finally put an end to their losing streak tonight vs the Flames, 5-2.

A 5-2 victory that saw 10 Flyers record a point. That is a huge difference than the Flyers off the past few weeks, where they had a two week stretch where no forward scored other than Giroux, Couturier, or Voracek.

The performance tonight showed that this team needed a boost and it came from some unlikely members. The Flyers got a 3-point performance from old reliable Jake Voracek. But, also got a 2-goal performance from the creator of the “Honey Bee” nickname, Scott Laughton.

To add more to it, Voracek helped lead the newly formed second line to a 7-point night. Voracek’s new linemates, Michael Raffl & Valterri Filppula, each had a goal and an assist. But, when Raffl was asked after the 1st period who scored the Flyers first goal, he said both him and Filppula deserved one. Well, it was given to Filppula, so Raffl just had to go get one for himself and he did in the 2nd.

71 SecondsJust 60 seconds after the Flyers killed off the Flames first powerplay of the night, they had a 71 second streak to remember.

Flyers Shayne Gostisbehere got it all started with a lazar from the point that deflected off Scott Laughton. The puck then hit the post and went off the back of Flames goalie Mike Smith into the back of the net.

Then, just 25 seconds later, Michael Raffl scored off a beautiful give-and-go pass with Jake Voracek. The play was set up by a great neutral zone effort by Jake Voracek off the face-off.

However, the Flyers weren’t done. Off a phantom penalty call where Couturier got hit up high by a teammate’s stick, Simmonds scored just 9 seconds into the powerplay.

This was the fastest three goals a Flyers team has scored since they scored three in 72 seconds against Edmonton Oilers last season.

Brian ElliottAfter a month of November to forget, Brian Elliott didn’t start off the month of December the way he wanted. However, the goalie showed why he is starting to turn it around with a dominant performance in Calgary.

Elliott stopped 43 of the 45 shots he faced last night. The game didn’t get off the way he wanted it too, giving up the games first goal off a juicy rebound. But, Elliott rebounded nicely.

Elliott stopped 20 of 21 shots in the 2nd and all 10 he faced in the 3rd. He made timely save after timely save to keep the Flyers in the lead.

For his career, Elliott now has a 9-3-1 record against Calgary.

Line ChangesFor the 1st time this season, Giroux-Couturier-Voracek was not the Flyers first line. nstead, Coach Dave Hakstol has finally decided to change up the lines to spread out the scoring forwards in hope to jump start the Flyers offense. he new Flyers lines…

Giroux – Couturier – Simmonds

Raffl – Filppula – Voracek

Konecny – Patrick – Weise

Leier – Laughton – Weal

In doing so, Hakstol only moved one forward off the top line. However, it has caused a ripple effect down the lineup that resulted in some key changes to the other three lines.

This ripple effect caused the scoring tonight ti be spread out between multiple lines and not just one.